Research on Email Productivity in Portugal
Email is still the backbone of work
In Portugal, like most developed economies, email remains the primary communication tool in organisations. It’s used for coordination, decision-making, and documentation and enables fast information flow across teams and stakeholders
Across Europe (Portugal included), workers spend an average of approx. 18 minutes per day on email (or 6.8% of working time). That sounds low - but it’s misleading because that figure captures active time, not ‘mental load’ - it doesn’t factor in context switching, re-reading, and decision fatigue.
The real cost of email is cognitive, not just time.
Portugal has a broader productivity challenge
With a productivity per hour that is below EU averages plus a large gap between high and low-performing firms, this highlights that email habits are likely inconsistent and maturity varies widely between organisations.
Recent data shows that 47% of workers in Portugal report daily stress. Combine this with email overload and constant responsiveness expectations and we see the classic pattern of reactive inbox behaviour leading to fragmented attention and resulting in lower productivity
AI adoption is rising - but is not yet leveraged
Around 2 in 3 Portuguese workers are using AI tools but lack of training is limiting impact. The technology is there, but workflow thinking hasn’t caught up yet
The key productivity problems (what’s really happening)
Based on all of this, Portugal likely faces the same (and familiar) issues that are experienced globally:
Reactive inbox culture see people start the day in email and lose control of their real priorities
Email is used for everything instead of using email for confirmation and meetings for discussion so everything becomes an email thread
Poor workload management as a result of emails sitting in inboxes instead of being converted into tasks or scheduled into the calendar
Constant interruptions from email notifications and checking email leads to fragmented attention and focus
Lack of formal training – as with much of the rest of the world, most professionals have never been trained in email management and rely on habits picked up over time
The opportunity for Portugal (and many others)
Like so many other countries, Portugal is in a perfect position for improvement. Their combination of strong digital adoption, growing AI usage and a clear productivity gap provides opportunity for a massive upside from better email management practices.
The biggest wins will come from:
Moving from inbox to calendar thinking - plan work instead of reacting to it
First-touch decision discipline - handle each email once (decide, don’t defer)
Clear communication protocols that reduce unnecessary back-and-forth
Attention management to control when email is used
AI + automation (properly applied) to summarise, triage, and extract tasks from the inbox